Perry offers challenge to state universities

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Gov. Rick Perry unveiled his campaign for innovation and improvement in higher education Wednesday at Angelo State University, standing beside a board titled "Higher Education for All Texans."

The board listed four initiatives the governor has either issued as challenges for universities or would like the next Legislature, which meets in January, to adopt into law.

"Today's highly competitive, ever-evolving economy is demanding a workforce that's more extensively educated and better prepared for the high-tech jobs of the present and future," Perry said in a Thursday news release. "Through innovative programs and approaches, universities can meet their responsibility of educating the next generation of Texans without sacrificing an iota of the quality that's made our higher education system a beacon for researchers and students from around the world."

On Wednesday, ASU announced it would be the 10th state public university to offer a four-year degree for less than $10,000 in tuition and fees.

The degree program would allow highly qualified freshmen to earn a bachelor's of interdisciplinary studies and will be launched in fall 2013.

Perry first set that challenge for universities in February 2011.

"Of all the proposals that I've discussed, I don't think anything has gotten more attention over the course of the last couple of years, from people who believed in it and people who didn't," he said Wednesday at an ASU reception. "We just had a great deal of interest in this. And that's good. I think it tells those of us in public service and decision-makers that people have this intense interest in being able to further their lives by being able to have access to a higher education opportunity."

He said the $10,000 degree programs accomplish two goals.

"Most importantly, it does provide that opportunity for students to earn a low-cost, high-quality degree that will get them where they want to go in their life," Perry said. "Secondly, it has people at the universities like ASU thinking and thinking hard about how to get this done. So we've learned to leverage technology, we utilize very innovative techniques, figuring out how to educate more young people at a reasonable cost. And the lessons our institutions will learn from this process, I think, will prove invaluable as we move forward."

He said that's also the reason he has called on universities to freeze tuition and fees for four years for incoming freshmen so they or their parents can have "stability, predictability for a four-year period of time."

"Here's what it's going to cost you for four years," he said. "It gives them the ability to plan."

ASU President Joseph Rallo, who previously served as provost and academic vice president for Western Illinois University, said he had experience with that type of tuition freeze: It was the law for Illinois' 11 public universities.

He said there are two considerations before a freshman tuition freeze will work.

The first is that the retention rate — the number of freshmen who continue on to their sophomore year — must be high.

At Angelo State, the retention rate hovers around 60 percent, which would represent a sharp drop in tuition if the remaining sophomores were attending under a freeze.

"No. 2 is that every state institution in Illinois every year raised the tuition about 12 percent, annualized over the course of four years about 3 percent," Rallo said.

"It has to be something," he said. "It just can't be flat. With rising cost of living, rising health care costs, you can't have that one constant be flat."

Perry also said it is important for students to graduate in four years, which is addressed in the outcome-based funding part of his proposal.

"We've got some abysmally low graduation rates," he said. "Less than 30 percent of our kids graduate in four years, and that's just unacceptable. We've got to get them out and get them into the workforce."

Outcome-based funding is a proposal by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to tie about 10 percent of the funding universities and community colleges get from the state to a series of "metrics."

Dominic Chavez, spokesman for the Coordinating Board, said the board developed the metrics that will be part of a proposal for the Legislature to consider and that the governor supports.

For universities, 90 percent of their state funding would be based on enrollments, instead of 100 based on enrollments, as is the current law, Chavez said.

"We have one model for universities that mostly focuses on degrees awarded," he said. "It will be a different system for community colleges. We will be rewarding them, if you will, for how they help students move through the education pipeline."

Rallo said: "The premise is we're trying to get students to graduate in four years, which means you have to take 15 credits a semester. If you have a student body that's taking less than 15, the institution kind of gets penalized."

He pointed to the issue of nontraditional students who might take fewer than 15 hours because they work full time, either because they are already in a career or they are paying for school.

"We're just saying, if you're going to do it, let it be gradually instituted. One size doesn't fit all," Rallo said.

Michael Reid, ASU's vice president for finance and administration, said he estimates $2 million to $3 million of the $44 million instructional portion of ASU's budget, or 5 percent to 8 percent, will be tied to outcome-based funding.

"I think what it does is it's going to require the university to focus on those metrics," Reid said. "I think the university already is focused on those metrics. Graduation rates, retention rates, those are things the university has been working on. We're quite fortunate that our goals and strategic plan have already been aligned in this direction."

Rallo said the fourth piece of the governor's initiative — transparency in pricing — is already in place at ASU.

"That's the whole concept of sticker price as opposed to the actual cost," he said. "If you go to our website, you'll see a financial aid calculator. I think it's one of the best I've seen."

Perry said higher education cannot stand still.

"The fact is the system can improve and that's why we've put these systems into place," Perry said.

HIGHER EDUCATION FOR ALL

Gov. Rick Perry is promoting four proposals for the state's public universities:

Four-year tuition freeze

Outcome-based funding

Transparency in pricing

$10,000 degrees

MEASURING SUCCESS

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has established seven metrics linked to the outcome-based funding proposal it is presenting to the next Legislature. Public universities would earn points based on these metrics, and up to 10 percent of state funding for universities would be tied to how the institutions scored on the metrics.